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:: Posts ::
Thursday, September 30, 2004
been in the telephone operator department for 3 days.. hell of a ride.. but i enjoyed it.. i gotta change my style of speech as i m too casual in my speech.. "certainly, thank you.." gotta replace my "sure, no problem!" "you're welcome, good bye.." gotta replace my "welcome, bye!" i also gotta watch my mannerism.. need to scrap that singlish off me.. lucky i have nice people working with me in the department,.. everyone so far have been nice and warm...
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 1:00 AM
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Sunday, September 26, 2004
made lotsa of sales in the gift shop on friday.. i actually sweat in the gift shop. it has always been tagged the most boring place in the hotel but not on friday.. i becoming more used to the environment already in the biz centre and giftshop but sadly today is my last day.. the working environment is good and the people here to be be quite nice.. i believe what i learnt here will be beneficial when i go to other departments especially the front office. its also here that make me believe that les roches is the place i'm going to pursue my degree. Eva is one of the graduates so i got first hand news about what to expect from there and so far what i heard sounds good to me..
had our classroom session yesterday and realised everyone had grown from their internship.. they look at things in a better perspective and i could see our batch is quite a motivated and capable batch.. i'm proud of each and everyone achievement in their respective companies and hopefully everyone is able to make their mark in the hospitality industry next time..
today is a rather quiet day.. not much guest using the biz centre and the gift shop.. i even have the time to complete a IQ test i found online.. i got a score of 131 but the problem is that i don't know much it is gauge upon to.. any kind souls?
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 6:16 PM
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Friday, September 24, 2004
how do i define success? initially i always think success is a stable job and a happy family. after stepping into the industry, success to me is tainted.. it's not a stable job and a happy family anymore.. i want to be a emblematic sublime icon in the hospitality world.. i need a family to be on the move with me.. i know what i want and i know how i'm going to get there.. But this success of mine is a double-edge sword. i'm going to exchange a big part of me to achieve what i want. My family, my friends and my scouts.. i see myself trotting the globe, in the process i'll start losing touch with them one by one.. Am i able to make this sacrifice?
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 9:01 AM
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my first step into the rooms division is so far been pretty challenging and i like it.. i faced different sorts of problems everyday that requires my brain to always think of new solutions.. had my brush with long working hours yesterday as i gotta stay back 2 more hours to learn how to close the gift shop as today i will be doing it.. though i gotta do it witha heavy heart, i feel it's necessary or else i'm gonna really suffer today as i'll be running the gift shop alone with no back up.. gotta brace myself for today...
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 8:02 AM
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Thursday, September 23, 2004
found out that its rather nice to work in the biz centre when there's regular flow of guests but not an influx of guests that come all the time... i was told to send a fax yesterday and the guest asked for a fax cover.. darn.. i don't know what was it cos i wasn't brief what was it.. so i decided to stall for time by giving a fax envelope knowing its confirm wrong .. lucky i manage to get Ima who told me where is it and gave me crash course on how to fax the stuff.. i scrapped through... phew..
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 8:20 AM
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Wednesday, September 22, 2004
its never boring at the gift shop surprizingly.. time passed really fast maybe its because i'm quite preoccupied...start off the day with a closed sales to a japanese guest. then proceed to gift wrapping session by areen.. its really a challenge as usually i only know how to gift wrap a cube like present, the rest of those unusual shape i will make them into my cliche "sweet" wrapper style of wrapping.. after a a brief moment, the concierge gave me 2 books for gift wrapping.. areen have to go up to the biz ctr, and juz entrust me to wrap those and tie the 2 ribbons on it too... the ribbons are the toughies.. its not those normal shoelace butterfly knots but some elaborated one... its like having knotting lesson from her.. in the end, i did everything and guess what, areen inspected it and in the end she gotta re wrapped it by herself again.. hehe.. i suck at that.. hmmm but i look forward to the next gift i gotta wrap since i got the experience i know where are my weakness , i know where to look out for when i gift wrap.. come on bring it on..
went up biz ctr and was doing shift with ima. she was telling me about her brush with richard branson when she's workign at Virgin. haha.. she got quite an adventure with that guy..
went to gift shop to cover omar's dinner shift and a extravagant shopper came in. she spent a thousand plus on gifts and we spend almost an hour to gift wrap and fill up all the GST refund form.. she later requested for a brief writeup for the designer that designed her purchases. being me, i volunteered to find out for her.. i promised her. you should have see omar face. "why did you promised her?" i look through the supplier's file and found nothing and the supplier got no webby. hmm.. i'm beginning to panic.. so i asked areen to tell me what she knows about the designer and i took everything down and that's when i put my essay writing skills to use. i piece everything together and just add in some of the useless information about the company and wahla, its done.. phew... areen asked me not to do that too often as like that next time their expectation will be higher, how are they going to fulfil it.. hmm..she make sense but i disagree.. maybe i'm still a newbie in the industry, the sky's is limitless. anything is possible. i believe as long as i crack my brain, solutions will flow.. i'm going to continue to go this extra mile but discreet to the staff or else i will get into trouble again... =)
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 7:54 AM
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Tuesday, September 21, 2004
terry fox run on sunday went rather well... no major cork up.. phew.. but there some hitches here and there that can be learned and improved on the next run.. too bad me and sooling won't be doing it next year.. i'll be running my own marathon in NS at this time next year..
Yesterday went rather well.. time pased rather fast.. was in the gift shop and biz centre.. though i'm going to be in in for one week, shall gonna make full use of it.. i tried my best to learn the different kinds of semi precious stones we have in the gift shop so as to increase my product knowledge.. i also got another task waiting for me.. it is to design the monthly noticeboard as this time its the gift shop/biz centre turn..Another challenge, i like..
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 7:13 AM
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Saturday, September 18, 2004
the first half of the yesterday was crap... met janey the french trainee and janet asked me to show her around.. in the end, we got trap in a flight of staricase with no keys to come out... gotta call the operator and they inform the security and they make a big hu-ha about it and all the maangers know about it as the security told everyone during the morning meeting.. yeah, i created a legacy.. more like a comedy.. then followed me i had to followe maswan the despatch driver to run errands.. communication occur between the parties and we are made to clear up the shit..then gotta rush through lunch as there;s still terry fox tickets to account for... made a new friend with florence from regent.. we are sorting out the terry fox run tickets.. damn.. its 3000 booklets..lucky in the midst of it, miss hon bought a cake partly like a farewell party for me from the finance department.. i was really touched.. then here comes the extravagant surprise...
after sorting out the tickets, zannie and juliana said that they have something for me to do... (in a stern voice) hmm..i was like thinking, not again, another shit to clear up.. then wala., a number of the sales and catering people are standing there with a cake.. oh MyZ!!!! its a shocker.. especially its from them... suddenly i realise how these chores i was made to do were worth it.. jacintha told me she haven't seen the sales people do that to a trainee before..i felt really touched by this gesture by them.. after taking a bite of the cake, there's a emergency crunch by the banquet at the FS ballroom. almost everyone drop their stuff and went to help.. the finance, the cattering , the sales all went to chip in.. uday was folding napkins, miss hon was putting seat covers, the sales amangers are folding and placing the napkins, the catering people are placing all the goblets... i could see so many departments coming down. All doing their part to finish the set up the gala dinner.. its teamwork at its best where everyone is equal and with the same common goal.. This is one day i won't forget..
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 8:18 AM
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Friday, September 17, 2004
emma was great... we went on a sales visit to centenial tower. i can say she's pretty impressive and i heard from miss hon that she's one of the top sales manager in the region.. we had great fun during the trip and she treated me to a nice smoothie. and i found out she can use her tongue to touch her nose but she can't roll her tongue..only the trip out with emma yesterday was one of the few nice experience i have inthe sales department.. 5 weeks have passed.. today is my officially last day.. the department i'm going to miss will surely be the finance department. i will also missed my storerooms...
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 7:39 AM
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Thursday, September 16, 2004
I've grown... i've achieved that calm within me.. i'm able to take things gracefuly by my stride..
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 7:50 AM
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Wednesday, September 15, 2004
yesterday i learn about how the japanese do their business. they do it without talking about business.. firstly they forge a relationship then after that the client will be loyal. i came in this morning and met ivan ,the restaurant manager. he asked me where i am now and do i havea rough idea where i wanna go when i begin my career. hmm.. can't answer him throughly as i'm still not sure how it is like in the rooms division. however he commented i should go to the HR department. he said m strength can be make full use in this department. hmmm... will keep that in mind, the stumbling block is, from what i know a GM or HM never comes from the HR department as its not a operation department..
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 8:24 AM
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Tuesday, September 14, 2004
i guess yesterday marks the official last day i'm going out on sales calls with the sales manager. Pauline is a professional seller but i don't think she's a great one.. Going on different trips with the sales maanger makes me see the differetn style of selling the different managers adopt.. i was made to do shit yesterday but daniel simon lifted me up.. i know i have an ingenious mind and i must not be afraid to shwocase it..
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 8:08 AM
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Saturday, September 11, 2004
yesterday's experience is really different.. i went to the japanese embassy with tetsuo on his sales call.. its a rather fun experience as i;m trying to make sense of te japanese they spoke and trying to communicate with his clients in my substandard- broken japanese. the rest of the day i've been slacking quite alot.. so far in my four seasons career.. however i manage to complete my culture package for the hotel.. been doing it for a month already.. always procrstinating it, finally its done yesterday...
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 9:27 AM
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Friday, September 10, 2004
learnt about prospecting from cheryl yesterday... the different strategies to used to tackle differeent types of customer and different questions to ask to probe about the clients' needs and about our competitors.. the main thing i can remember about prospecting is about finding what the client needs and giving it to them straight to the point.
zannie's aunt pass away and its quite an experience to see her teared. its hard to imagine a tough little cookie like her tearing..
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 7:54 AM
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Thursday, September 09, 2004
stayed till 10 pm last night to help HR with their poster about KUTULU's opening.. i'm, glad i went to help. i regain my confidence back, i got my challenge and i conquered it. hmm.. at least today i get to step out of the office doing some "real" work..
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 7:39 AM
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Wednesday, September 08, 2004
= )
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 4:19 PM
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miss hon was right, she hitted the nail on the head. "jason, i think what you need is a challenge"..
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 3:51 PM
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i bought more than $20 of items in the flea market yesterday... and i'm glad yesterday is a much better day.. i've found a new way to motivate myself, by setting a time limit for each of my task, i try to better the time. each and every task i complete within the targetted time, my confidence grew.. i shall apply the same method and see whether it works today...
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 7:41 AM
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Tuesday, September 07, 2004
yesterday was one of my lowest point working in the hotel.. i felt lousy, unappreciated, defensiveless.. lotsa of things go wrong for me and disappointments just start to sink in. i feel like a cheap labour or to put in nicer term a "director of errand management". made to do brainless stuff just to pass time.. haven't really learn much from this department yet, but i know the time will come. i'll make it come.
i also get to witness the leadership qualities of miss hon yesterday.. she makes a good boss and also a good friend and mentor. i see her trying to nurture her staff to greater heights because she feels that this staff could improve her way of doing. i remember she said that not to keep hiding in you own comfort hole and refused to come out. in order to grow, you have to step out and experience..
Battle the storm, learn from it and embrace the experience. till this day i'm always dreaming, dreaming i can "fly". i can see myself "flying". i like to dream, it makes me get in touch with the future and motivates me to strive for it to come true. i almost can feel it in my toes now... today will be a better day.. today i 'm going to make it a better day..
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 7:42 AM
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Sunday, September 05, 2004
been procrastinating the updating of my blog partly due to my lack of sleep the past few days.. been going to work really early and returning when its near bedtime. hardly have the time to toggle my computer when i reach time. the first thing i do i reach home is to take a shower then head to bed. i haven't been reading my mags i bought last week.
being inside the sales department wasn't that great as i expected it was.. i basically felt like cheap labour.. doing stuff people dreaded.. running stupid errands, doing brainless teething mailing and sorting..whenever they mentioned they have a "project" for me, it's usually a no-brainer..what project is that man~ how about phrasing it to "jason, we have some shit for you to clear up." Its alright.. i try to learn something from the shit i'm given. i know a faster way to do mailing and sorting now, i know who are the high-end clients of the hotel and what our competitors does.. doing all these shit, i learn more about myself and about others... realise that i've become more attached to the finance department compared to the sales. there's more warmth in Finance. I've become good friends with the people and miss hon really takes care of the department.
on thursday , juliana ran through the overall structure of what PR does.. there are also trade press,consumer press, local press and international press they have to do their mailing. there's lots of work to do in this department and i'm quite amazed at how they manage to do their work before i came. there's so much tedious jobs..
slowly, i begin to see i've changed. i realise my way of thinking and doing things have changed compared to the first time i step into the hotel. i seem to cultivate this bubble of calmness within me in whatever i'm doing. there's this aura that's protecting me from all sorts of arrowing and scheming stuff thrown at me.. somehow i'm beginning to see myself as a third person way. i see how jason handle nitty gritty stuff, see how jason interact with guests and see how he deals with all his colleagues. for now , i observed that his immediate weakness now is his tongue.. he have to learn when to hold his tongue at the right time.. i'll tell him about it..
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 10:35 AM
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Thursday, September 02, 2004
attended the catering's team training lunch yesterday... its basically they lunched together then proceed to either a coffee place to like have a informal meeting. during the meeting, nicholas lim the director will prompt everyone to ask question or difficulty they faced during work and everyone will give their opinion and advice.i find this style of meetnig very interesting and certainly something i could emulate next time i get to lead a team.
went to run some errand for the gift shop so took the cab to far east plaza to get the task done.. its kinda of a great feeling to step out to the hotel lobby and hail a cab all by myself without anyone tagging along... i feel empowered. though its a simple task but its certainly much better than doing those admin work in the office.
work is beginning to pile up and its draining me.. i always look forward to the day i can just sleep pass 11am. but its still a long long way... mon - sat i always go to work and sunday i gotta report to scouts.. how i wish there's one more day in the week just for people to sleep and recuperate. i just gotta find the moitvation to come to work and find my purpose back. i can do it!
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 7:35 AM
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Wednesday, September 01, 2004
yesterday was darn tiring.. have to be at the hotel by 6.30am. met up with theresa and daniel simon and set off to sentosa to go through the terry fox run route again.. pick sooling on the way to sentosa and we guys are not sure what's in store for us. daniel simon said we are going to run the marathon..!!! its a gruellling 8km route followed by a 4 km route.. damn... we ran but theresa and sooling pull out in the middle of it and meet us at one of the ending points. Then that leaves me and daniel simon running the remaining route.. i pulled out nearing the ending point cos my legs can';t take it. its been ages since i really run. during the jog, had a conversation with him. we talked bout his wife who happens to run 4 times a week and always follow him around to which ever property he's posted to. He told me that there's quite a lot of divorces cases in the hotel industry as there';s always long hours and very flexible time which is why he have to find a really accomodating and flexible wife follow him to wherever he goes. He told me not to marry young because i have yet to settle down.. i'm glad we made that conversation cos somehow now i'm not so intimidated by him and will try to share more with him when the time comes. got back to the office and was struch with a piece of bad news.. the press list i have been doing had to be redo cos the director didn't like it. the presentation wasn;t up to her standard and the funny thing is that she's the one who set the presentation. so the remaining of the day is used to clear up the mess.. the reason i'm able to remain sane in the office is because of the finance department.. i felt so welcomed over here and everyone is so warm. miss hon the dir of finance treat me like i'm part of her department and usually i get to eat the food the finance people bought. till now i still feel that lack of connection with the sales team however i'm closer to the catering sales people, maybe because they are more outgoing with a heavy tinge of singaporean in them. their dirty jokes are always a no holds barred kinda of jokes, courtesy of april chan.
i still feeln rather unfulfiled after working for more than 2 weeks in the sale department. its like i know i can do better stuff in that 2 weeks. in the process i lost my focus point and forgotten my purpose.i need to get it back so yesterday i decided to clear the clutters in my room to free more space for my mind. i'm going to motivate myself again. i can do it!
<..do unto others as you would have others do unto you..> at 7:36 AM
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